Ellipticity Correlation Research Articles

Dynamical Properties of Error Statistics in a Shallow-Water Model

Abstract Numerical ocean diagnoses and predictions rely on two types of information: model information and data information. Sequential estimation theory shows that the most probable state is a linear combination of the two, weighted according to their error statistics. A Kalman filter technique is applied to a one-layer reduced-gravity linear ocean model in a rectangular midlatitude basin. The model reproduces the main features of the subtropical wind-driven gyre; the filter is used to study the dynamical behavior of the error statistics. On a midlatitude f plane, the error-correlation patterns among the state variables revealed by the Kalman filter are isotropic and homogeneous and satisfy a geostrophic relation. Introducing the β effect breaks the isotropy and homogeneity of the correlations, inducing behavior that is in agreement with two observational facts: 1) the latitudinal dependence of horizontal correlations and 2) the elliptic correlation shape of the mass field, elongated along the southwest–...

The correlation function of galaxy ellipticities produced by gravitational lensing

The correlation of galaxy ellipticities produced by gravitational lensing is calculated as a function of the power spectrum of density fluctuations in the universe by generalizing an analytical method developed by Gunn (1967). The method is applied to a model where identical objects with spherically symmetric density profiles are randomly laid down in space, and to the cold dark matter model. The possibility of detecting this correlation is discussed. Although an ellipticity correlation can also be caused by an intrinsic alignment of the axes of galaxies belonging to a cluster or a supercluster, a method is suggested by which one type of correlation can be distinguished from another. The advantage of this ellipticity correlation is that it is one of the few astronomical observations that can directly probe large-scale mass fluctuations in the universe.